THE general manager of an Edleen dairy shop died in hospital this morning after being shot during an armed robbery on Thursday night.

Dyke Motsepa succumbed to his injuries, a bullet wound to the stomach, while being treated at Tembisa Hospital.

Initial information received from Norkem Park SAPS this morning that a security guard was wounded, was incorrect.

Motsepa was wounded during an armed robbery at Pizzarology, a wholesale dairy distributor on Modderhill Road next to CR Swart Drive, during which two armed men ambushed two general managers and a security guard.

According to a co-worker, Emmanuel, he and Motsepa had just finished locking up the shop at about 6.30pm when the incident occurred.

“I was waiting in the car for Dyke as he was setting up the security alarm. That was when one of the security guards at the complex said he noticed a white Golf parked inside the complex.

“He went to the car and told the person inside they were not permitted to park there. But the person ignored him,” Emmanuel told EXPRESS on Friday afternoon.

When he was done, Motsepa got into the passenger side of Emmanuel’s car.

“A few moments later, I heard an extremely loud bang on my side of the car [driver’s side]. It was a man carrying a big gun telling us, ‘Phumani! Phumani emotweni!’ (get out of the car), which we did.”

As Emmanuel and Motsepa got out of the car, the armed man instructed them, along with a security guard, to get onto the floor.

Moments later, a second man, armed with a small handgun, walked up to the group while talking on his cell phone.

“They started asking us where the manager was and we told him he was gone. They didn’t believe us and told us we were lying. The guy with the big gun saw someone looking down from the flats nearby and became nervous. He called someone and told them to bring the car around because someone was watching them,” Emmanuel explained.

A Golf pulled up and he went to the car. The second guy also started walking away and that’s when Emmanuel and Motsepa saw an opportunity to escape.

“As we got up, I heard a huge bang. When I looked, I saw the second guy with the small gun had shot Dyke in the stomach.”

He then fled in a white Audi.

Motsepa screamed in pain and walked towards a passageway at the shops, where he fell to the ground.

“He asked for us to call his mother.”

By this time tenants from other shops had come outside after hearing the commotion and called an ambulance and the police.

Emmanuel had known Motsepa for years after Motsepa had started working at the shop about seven or eight years ago.

“He had become like a brother to me because he knew my family and I knew his.”

Motsepa, who lived in Ivory Park with his family, got married recently and only returned to work about three days ago after being on leave for his wedding.

“Just yesterday he was showing us photographs from his wedding day.”

A woman who worked with Motsepa and Emmanuel described the deceased as a “fantastic person who was very loving and kind”.